Spain
Tense takeover battle for Spain’s Endesa energy company
By John Vassilopoulos, October 31, 2006
The longstanding dispute over the takeover of Spanish energy company Endesa exploded again last week, after the European Commission sent the Spanish government a formal notice over the latter’s ...
Spanish protests demand affordable housing
By Marcus Morgan, October 30, 2006
Street demonstrations were held in major Spanish cities this month to protest the lack of affordable housing, especially for young people looking for a first home.
Spain: new capitulation by the Socialist Party to the Catholic Church
By Paul Stuart, October 26, 2006
On September 22, Spain’s Socialist Party (PSOE) Vice President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega put the finishing touches on an agreement that continues state financing for the Catholic Churc...
Marbella construction scandal exposes endemic criminality of Spanish capitalism
By John Vassilopoulos, October 17, 2006
The surfacing of a number of corruption scandals linked to the construction industry in Spain has revealed the outright criminality that lay at the heart of the country’s recent economic boom.
Spain: Government seeks European clampdown on Canary Islands boat people
By Paul Mitchell and Keith Lee, October 13, 2006
The Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government is answering the plight of the impoverished boat people sailing from Africa to the Canary Islands with more repressive measures. Prime Minister Jo...
Play on Lorca staged in Madrid in face of right-wing protests
By Paul Bond, October 12, 2006
A play dealing with the last hours of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, leading up to his murder by the fascist Falangists, has finally been staged in Madrid, for one performance only.
Construction slowdown threatens Spain’s economic boom
By John Vassilopulos, September 19, 2006
Economists are predicting a slowdown in Spain’s construction industry in 2007, which has been at the heart of the country’s decade-long economic boom. They warned that unless the dispropor...
Spain: “Law of historical memory” continues cover-up of Franco’s crimes
By Paul Stuart, September 11, 2006
Spain’s Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) government has declared 2006 the Year of Historical Memory and has submitted a “law of historical memory” to the country’s Congress for r...
Spain: A decade of economic boom and stagnant wages
By Paul Mitchell, August 30, 2006
By all accounts, Spain has experienced an economic boom over the last decade. It has “continued its prolonged economic expansion” (International Monetary Fund) and “weathered the int...
Spain defies European Commission on energy company sell-off
By John Vassilopoulos, August 26, 2006
The €27 billion takeover bid by German energy giant EON for Spain’s energy company Endesa has again brought Madrid into conflict with the European Commission. In a letter to the Spanish gov...
The Pope and the Catholic Church mobilise against the Spanish government
By Vicky Short, August 1, 2006
The Fifth World Meeting of Families took place in the seaside town of Valencia, Spain in the first week of July. The event provided Pope Benedict XVI with the perfect platform from which to attack the...
Spanish train line reopens before investigation into fatal accident begins
By Daniel O’Flynn, July 31, 2006
The death toll from Spain’s largest-ever train crash on July 3 reached 43, after a passenger died from his injuries early two weeks on. The driver, Joaquin Pardo Tejedor, was among the fatalitie...
